I'll likely be there at the next edition, which I believe is already the 13th. But in the meantime, I've been following through images and the moving way my dear Benvindo Neves Chantre has been sharing the "National Violin Festival" in Ponta do Sol.
More than simply following images of a festival I couldn't attend, what these posts made me reflect on was the urgent importance of creating spaces where our traditional music continues to be present, lived, and preserved, rather than remaining merely a memory we hold of the past.
Beginning by praising the scene that Benvindo Chantre Neves built through his valuable posts would be inevitable. Following the publications, one almost grasped the festival itself – the mark of someone who loves and shares music with passion, like our Benvindo.
A festival where the stage welcomes and spreads our music in splendor is already precious in these times. Doing so around an instrument that our music has already carried across the world, yet which we speak of so little here, is all the more significant. And when that stage also recovers a piece by Travadinha, chosen for a soundtrack, we understand there's far more in that violin than we're sometimes able to recognize.
I was glad to see, in the images, the violin that made people dance, the young musician who stood out, the classical violinist whom time and certain ideologies that dictate cultural priorities have not acknowledged, and the varied origins of the musicians – from the islands to the diaspora.
I was glad to see a stage embraced by a Festival dedicated to Cape Verdean traditional music. Perhaps not by chance, yesterday, an article I read brought me a phrase that seemed pertinent to cite regarding folk music – which, though one facet of traditional music, is perhaps the largest slice – and which applies perfectly here:
"Folklore is generally respected as heritage and memory, but struggles more to be recognized as an active part of the present."
That's precisely where I see the importance of festivals like this one.
To know ourselves, we need them to continue. We need the younger generation to see, learn, and discover who they are also through music, and above all, to take part on those stages.
I see a generation with several examples of standout young people who only reached where they are because they had teachers and mentors along the way who awakened their curiosity and gave them space to grow.
Benvindo Neves Chantre is clearly one of those who plays this role of promotion, valorization, and sharing of our music best.
Thank you, Benvindo, for bringing to me – and to so many others – what we often don't have the chance to see.
May the stages for traditional music multiply. May our music continue to be played, experienced, learned, and carried into the future.
Only then can the generation now arriving know their identity, at a time when, I believe, we've already lost too many years in mere delay or focus drift.
Applause for the organization and promoters of the festival, which could surely grow even larger.